Building a Corvette Kit Car

Hold on to your purse strings. One of the side jobs I had was dealing with fiberglass lay-up houses for boats, kit cars and military tank mockups. They were there one day and gone the next, (down the street under another name and solvent for the next month). Some of our equipment is still working at ACI in Sylvania (Toledo) OH, good steady people. If you're close go see and talk to them, they will do you right on information and Corvette parts. Chose your supplier carefully and don't get sucked into 1/2 down and the other half on delivery, it won't happen. Many of the Corvette rags have people supplying frames for current running gear and the drive trains are out there in the re-cycles.

They built some of the Greenwood Corvette GTs. The thing most people don't count on is the cost of the details. They will $500 and $1,000 you to the poor house.

Just a thought or two, find someone that has already had his financial ass handed to him by delays and cost over runs and pick up his project. Another direction is to pick up a Corvette that you would be satisfied to drive and work on it until you're broke or are happy with what you have.

Good luck, many of us have had that same dream, (nightmare).

Good advice sniped

Very nice ride. Cost was obviously not a concern, she knew what she wanted. This is one of those "if ya have to ask, ya can't afford it" machines.

Thanks for the link Dad, enjoyed the story.

Marty

Here's a couple of sources:

Dunno, never built one, but I'd suspect you'll spend upwards of $60k and put a lot of equity sweat into it over at least a year if you dedicate yourself to it.

Hey Dad, Did you ever know/deal with the MFB (Molded Fiberglas Boat) folks to the east of you? Went thru flight school with that gent's nephew--

50+ years ago.

-- PJ

Dad wrote:

Nope, mostly the west coast in Costa Mesa, G&S and Florida, Magnum Indy, H&G Carson City, Glass Craft Indy, but did some work with Dexter, and Gusmer NJ and Venus Gusmer WA. If you're familiar with any of them they were OEMs that made equipment to blend, chop, and spray the materials. We made the pumps to move the material to the spray guns and choppers, they put together the system. The only time I was sent into a user is when the pumps didn't do their job and the customer was pissed. My normal job (?) was to design and have build specials for their systems. We built pumps to pump paint, blood, soap, wet corn kernels, wet sand, hog and chicken guts, crushed glass, mica, ink, powder, caulk, sealers, and even windshield sealer that you could stand on in an open barrel.

Those were the fun days, yeah, right.

Lone Star Motors out of Texas has a 1953 Vette kit

Pugesek motorsports makes a 53 Vette kit Advance Automotive Technologies modifies a C5 to look like a 53 and now to what you are really looking for 1956-57

Corvette Central has a 56-57 kit called the Concept 57 but its expensive at around $13,500 for the body according to my brochure from last year. Looks very well made

Joe Tromblay of Antique & Collectible Autos, Inc. in Buffalo NY has just finished the fiberglass body and frame for a 1956-57 Corvette. They've been building AC Cobras and other kit cars for years. Very good reputation. No website yet but very reasonable prices at less than 1/2 the price for the Corvette Central body.

35 Dole St. Buffalo, NY 14210 1-800-245-1310 or Joe's direct line 716-823-0007 Tell Joe that I sent you. I've just purchased a 57 body and one of the first frames from him. Will be picking it up this Thursday.

I've seen on ebay and several places online where you can buy 58-59 quad headlight front ends for reasonable prices to change a 56-57 to 58-59 years.

There are many aftermarket frames available that depend on what type of suspension you want. Mustang II front, 9" Ford rear. 4 link, Vette IFS and IRS. Expect to pay around $6,000 to $13,000 for a complete frame. I'm going with 84 Vette IFS and IRS but I'm doing it myself based on a bare frame from Joe.

Certain parts are extremely expensive for C1 Vettes, for example seat frames and springs, grill surrounds, steering wheels, stainless, windshield frames, etc... A few of these are priced in the thousands of dollars.

Fortunately, there is a strong aftermarket reproduction for most body and interior parts which are "reasonably" priced. Reasonable and Vettes don't usually go together. What is reasonable for a Vette is unreasonable for most other muscle or collector cars unless its a mid 60s Mopar which are way overpriced because most rotted away.

Here's some sources for frames:

This site has quite a list of replacement frames for C1 vettes I was thinking of going with an Art Morrison frame if I had the money but I don't so I have to do it the hard way. I have some special plans for my Vette so I'm doing something unusual again - see my 54 Pontiac link below.

How long will it take? There is a direct relationship between time and money. If you don't have money, it'll take a long time. If you want to spend the money, it'll take a short amount of time.

I'm in the process of buying parts. I don't plan on doing anything for a couple of years yet. I have a 1954 Pontiac full kustom to finish first which has taken 5 1/2 years so far. It will be on the road this summer. I have about $7,000 into it but I've done all the work myself (95%) Here's my webpage (250 pages or so):

What you need is a garage, tools, time, money, mechanical ability, perserverance and an understanding spouse. Not necessary in that order. It will take way longer then you expect! and cost way more than you expect!

I started up my 54 P> This is just a reality check for myself on the costs and time to build

HOLY MOTH*******R Dadgum !!! This one is too damned cool ! Advance Automotive Technologies modifies a C5 to look like a 53

I swear, I'd love one of those !!!